LATHROP — A Lathrop woman has filed a lawsuit against San Joaquin County alleging she was kept in jail overnight on a warrant issued for her sister.

Schenine Johnson of Stockton was arrested at Long’s Warehouse on March 4, 2004, in a warrant that named her sister, Ramona Gray.

Despite that Johnson does not look like her sister and that she could verify her identity — as could her coworkers — the two officers handcuffed her and took her to the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp, according to the suit.

Johnson continued to stay in jail after other sheriff’s deputies acknowledged she was the wrong person arrested and even after her sister showed up, according to court documents.

According to her complaint, “she was led to believe she would be released but was not because the employee who had authority to release (her) had left … at the end of her shift.”

At her arraignment the next morning, a judge ordered Johnson’s release.

However, she was again handcuffed, taken back to jail and told she wouldn’t be released until official release hours at 8 p.m. according to court documents. Johnson was eventually released at 5 p.m.

San Joaquin County operates the jail and the Lathrop Police is under contract with that city.

An exact damage amount is not listed in the suit, filed in January, but an earlier claim to the county for damages asked for $500,000 for mental and physical distress, embarrassment and humiliation.

Johnson would not comment on the case. Her attorney, E.S. Deacon, of the Sacramento-based Wilcoxen, Callahan, Montgomery & Deacon, was not available.

A Nov. 30 status conference is set, during which a judge and both parties will schedule what’s to come. The case could go to trial or arbitration, but “we’re still very early in litigation,” Assistant County Counsel Robyn Truitt Drivon said.

“This allegation is that the wrong person was arrested,” Drivon said. “What the county needs to do is determine who did what, when and with what knowledge.”

Three women have told the New York Times that music mogul Russell Simmons raped them, the latest in a cascade of serious allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men in entertainment, media, politics and elsewhere.